Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (DS) review

"It must be easy having a superhero in your life. Gotham City would be screwed without the exploits of Batman keeping its people safe from the Joker and other villains. Without Superman crushing Lex Luthor, the denizens of Metropolis wouldn't stand a chance. And for the people of the Morning and Evening Cities, their problems are danced away by a group of superheroes known only as Ouendan.
"

It must be easy having a superhero in your life. Gotham City would be screwed without the exploits of Batman keeping its people safe from the Joker and other villains. Without Superman crushing Lex Luthor, the denizens of Metropolis wouldn't stand a chance. And for the people of the Morning and Evening Cities, their problems are danced away by a group of superheroes known only as Ouendan.

Wait, what?

Unlike other superheroes, the Ouendan have no superpowers outside of the ability to appear in the most bizarre situations and the ability to shake their booties!

....Or at least the ability to raise their arms in strange positions and yell "Osu!"

It's accomplished with no more than a simple tap of the screen. Numbered circles appear in tune with the beat of the music, and it's your job to direct the Ouendan with a tap, tap, tap of the screen along with the music. For long, drawn out notes, a slider bar appears that you must bring the stylus across, and there's a spinning wheel you can use to rack up a lot of bonus points quickly. If you miss a beat, your Ouendan fall to the floor with a "GUUAAAARGH!" But if you succeed, they'll pull off another one of their repretoire of stylish moves.

Doing so will fill distressed individuals with the fires of passion, which will give them the strength they need to overcome diversity in some of the strangest of situations. It starts off simply, with the tale of a young man who's looking for a job, but the situations eventually begin to run the gamut, ranging from a seemingly gay man that kidnaps a male pop star and must be rescued by a trio of middle aged fangirls, a fat, balding salesman that blasts off into outer space to sell shoes to aliens, and even a little kid that wets the bed at night. Each story is told via full-colour manga panels that look great. The pop star's auditorium is appropriately flashy with details like the heatlamps and a raving audience abound before the women break out and chase the kidnapper down a broken highway, and the little bedwetter's level is complimented with little touches like the boy picturing a dam in his mind, or even a cameo of Mario and Luigi lookalikes to fix leaky pipes. Should you not do well enough in the song, they'll even jump up and hit the pipes, damaging them (and the boy's own mental block, making him more apt to piss himself) in the process, all complimented with the classic Mario "boing" sound.

With each successful solution to the problems people face, more situations become available to complete. However, our superheroes have a problem of their own: a rival group of Ouendan, trying to steal the limelight! Throughout Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2, you'll experience more than just an incredibly long name; you'll encounter one of the most fantastic games the DS has to offer. With some great songs by Japan's top artists backing the full colour manga panels, incredibly rich details and quirks in nearly every single scene, and insane, wacky scenarios guiding the entire package along in a fun-filled romp of frentic tapping. And at the end of it all, everyone in the world--including the rival teams--will have to band together for one final song... One that will determine the fate of the entire world.

And then it's over...or is it? The Ouendan have saved the day, but the action doesn't stop there. With multiple difficulties and even a game mode that makes the timing circles disappear before you're supposed to hit them, you will always find a reason to come back to this amazing, action-packed title. With easy to navigate menus and control using nothing but the stylus, it's import friendly to boot. Forget Guitar Hero. Ouendan is the music game to get. Being a superhero may be tough... but with the Ouendan on the job, you always know it's going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

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